Fiction | Game | Medium Adventurers League ⚔️
An Ominous Deal with Lord Harbach
A waypoint in a ‘choose your own’ adventure game
This is part of a story that works as an interactive game. You’ll need to have some paper and dice at the ready! Click here for the beginning of the Medium Adventurers League, and find a summary of the rules here. Or go back to the previous chapter.
You agree to collect the items that Lord Harbach wants… silently praying that it is won’t involve anything too depraved!
He smiles as he releases your cell door, letting you walk out into the dungeon corridor. “Very well. You will be my collector — and my envoy.”
You glance around nervously. “So, what is it that you need me to get, exactly?”
He stares silently at you.
“Uh… my Lord,” you add.
He smiles coldly, then turns, and begins to walk along the corridor. “Well, now,” he says, as you hurry after. “I have no intention of sharing all of my secrets.”
“Of course,” you reply.
“You only need to know that I need certain animal… parts.”
“Uh, huh…?”
The corridor turns and meets a set of stairs, and Lord Harbach’s robes swish as he strides up them, still a step ahead, and not meeting your gaze. “One bear claw,” he says. “One wolf fang. A frog’s leg. Sinew from an ape or a monkey. The bone of a raptor. A stinging jellyfish tentacle. And finally, the jaw of a sea snake.”
Bookmark this page, and return to it once you have collected the items required. Click here to find out what happens.(You can also click the last period at the foot of the page in the headquarters!).“Mmm… A deal’s a deal,” you say, wondering how the heck you will find those seven items. “I will certainly try my best.”
“Good. Don’t cross me, youngster. Life can be given, and it can be taken away.”
You gulp. “Okay… understood.”
“And just to repeat… you must speak well of me in every settlement you visit.”
In the next three towns or villages you visit, you must speak Lord Harbach's name.Your reputation will reduce by -1 each time.Lord Harbach now stops by a large double door, where a small, smartly-dressed goblin stands to attention, holding a canvas sack. The goblin now opens the door, revealing a dark, cloudy evening outside.
“Questions?” says Lord Harbach.
The question ‘what the heck are you making with this animal stuff?’ springs to mind. But you keep that one to yourself.
Instead you say, “I don’t know how to get back to my Adventurers League.”
Harbach looks amused, but doesn’t reply, instead gesturing to the goblin, and then starting to walk away.
“Back to your Adventurers League?” puts in the goblin. “Very well. I will show you the way, no trouble, no trouble… Let’s be going. When you are done, meet me by the gates of Westport, got it? Oh, and this is yours.”
“Huh?”
He hands over the sack, and you find that it contains your previous possessions… but none of your silver.
“You got my stuff?”
The goblin nods.
“Legally?”
He narrows his eyes. “As you can see, the Lord doesn’t want you to ask too many questions about our methods…”
Restore your previous items to your character sheet.This applies even if your items were confiscated (e.g. by prison) before your death.Click to go back to headquarters:
Thanks for reading — and playing! ⚔️
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